About 100 residents of Elphinstone and the area around the proposed Gospel Rock Village in Gibsons met Aug. 16 to express concerns about increased traffic and other impacts if the development goes ahead as planned.
Their biggest concern is using Chaster Road via Pratt Road as the main route in and out of the development.
The Town’s Gospel Rock Neighbourhood Plan says “the southern extension of Shaw Road via Inglis Road shall function as the primary access.”
But it goes on to note that building the extension will require the Town to assemble land dedications and fund construction, so “as an interim measure Chaster Road will function as the primary access into the neighbourhood.”
The plan suggests up to 250 housing units can be built before the Shaw Road access is needed.
The developer has also purchased property that would allow a connection via Rosamund Road, but that too would eventually send traffic to Pratt.
Pratt Road resident Susan Rule wants the Shaw Road extension built first, as a condition of starting any development at Gospel Rock.
She told Coast Reporter this week that the crowd at the meeting and the signatures mounting up on a petition show that others in the area agree. She said the meeting attendees were also worried about water supply and access for emergency vehicles.
“Our big message is ‘infrastructure before development,’” she said. “We’re requesting in our petition that infrastructure is built before any development starts at Gospel Rock. Obviously we’re going to take extra traffic down this road, we can’t help that, but to download and to dump all that traffic on our rural route when Pratt [Road] is already at a max for safety is just a terrible plan.”
Rule organized the Aug. 16 meeting after appearing at a Town of Gibsons committee meeting in July to have her concerns heard. Because of the rules around public inquiries, she couldn’t speak until the end of the meeting, by which time the developer’s representatives had left, and details of her comments weren’t recorded in the minutes.
She said she felt the same frustration when Lorne Lewis, the director for Elphinstone at the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD), Gibsons Mayor Wayne Rowe, representatives of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure and the developers declined invitations to the meeting.
Another message Rule is trying to get across is the impact of truck traffic during construction.
“We’re already getting a lot of construction traffic down Pratt because of Bonniebrook, which is a single access road, and they’re doing a development up there.”
Rule, who’s lived on Pratt for the past 14 years, said it’s a neighbourhood that deserves to be recognized for its rural, agricultural, character.
“We’re not just one big road to get to another place,” Rule said. “We are a community and I feel the Town is not recognizing us as that.”
If it goes ahead as proposed, the development won’t hit the 250-unit threshold until phase three. Phases one and two will see construction of 60 single-family homes and 50 apartment units, then 50 townhouses.
A draft traffic impact study, prepared for the developer, says the project “is expected to generate approximately 140 vehicle trips (30 entering and 110 exiting) during the weekday a.m. peak hour and about 175 vehicle trips (115 entering and 60 exiting) during the weekday p.m. peak hour for phase one.” Those numbers increase to 185 and 230 when phase two is included.
The SCRD board passed a motion earlier this summer recommending Gibsons “take steps to plan and develop the Shaw/Inglis Road route from the outset of building instead of waiting for the project to hit the 250-unit threshold” and draft a new traffic impact study.
The Elphinstone Advisory Planning Commission is also expected to weigh in with recommendations, and Lewis has asked that the Elphinstone Electors’ Community Association be allowed to make recommendations as well. The association plans to discuss the Gospel Rock project at a Sept. 13 meeting.
Rule says she’s also hoping to organize another meeting and plans to continue collecting signatures on the petition, which is at Quality Garden and Pet on Pratt Road.
“We’re saying [to the Town of Gibsons], put in your own arterial roads in your own development in your own tax base that will benefit you, before you start development. That’s the bottom line.”
